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Winter Hours; the build up to a first class country original Old Highway and so on. There is still time for a stunning a cappella arrangement of the Flying Burritos’ Juanita bringing out a beauty from the song I never dreamed existed. By the time they get to the end of their concert, the audience participa- tion on their song Lie Down suggests their popularity, at least in their hometown, is well established and I would have to say well deserved. They end with a first class arrange- ment of Hallelujah. And so say all of us.
www.goodlovelies.com John Atkins
STEVE PHILLIPS & THE ROUGH DIAMONDS North Country Blues Clarion CL CD004
EDDIE MARTIN
Looking Forward Looking Back Blueblood 014
Steve Phillips moved to Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire in 1990 and quickly started up a local Tuesday night music session. From these sessions a nucleus of musicians con- gealed into The Rough Diamonds. The group’s line-up has had a few changes over the years but at present boasts Chris Parkin- son (accordeon, organ), Burt Sawdon (dou- ble bass), Phil Moore (piano) and Jack Gibson (percussion) who all contribute backing vocals behind the man front and centre… Steve Phillips.
Steve is as laid back as ever, giving num- ber after number an easy tempo, rarely get- ting past half speed, letting the variety of songs, the spare arrangements, the instru- mental sounds, and his vocal delivery give the album all the nourishment it requires. Throughout Steve’s precise guitar work enhances songs as diverse as Leroy Carr’s Mid- night Hour Blues, Arthur Crudup’s That’s All Right Mama, the gospel numbers Don’t Let The Devil Ride and Too Close, the standards House Of The Rising Sun and That Lucky Old Sun and Bob Dylan’s Born In Time. Steve also includes four of his own songs, all of which contribute to the album’s pleasing mix.
North Country Blues is the fourth album by The Rough Diamonds since their first release, Been A Long Time Gone, appeared back in 1995. Like their music, the band never hurries, so you may have quite while to enjoy North Country Blues before a new album appears.
www.stevephillipsandtherough
diamonds.co.uk
Bristol-based Eddie Martin is a polar opposite performer to Steve Phillips, exuding propane-fuelled energy on his latest album Looking Forward Looking Back which fea- tures Eddie on vocals, guitar, piano and har- monica backed by his very excellent Big Blues Band with special guest ex-James Brown tenor saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis adding quality solos to three of the album’s tracks. Dedicated to three guitar pioneers – T-Bone Walker, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and Elmore James, Eddie and his cohorts brilliantly generate the exciting full band drive of the originators. A rocking rhythm section, lively arrangements, tight ensemble playing, with Eddie out front enjoy- ing himself immensely, makes for a blast of an album. His guitar work just seems to get bet- ter and better, but the album’s real surprise is that there are no cover… all fourteen tracks are by Eddie except Funky One Too which was co-written with Pee Wee Ellis. Looking back, Eddie has a strong back catalogue of self-pro- duced albums on his Blueblood label. Looking forward… can’t wait for the next one!
www.bluebloodrecords.com Dave Peabody Steve Phillips FLOR DE ZINC
Musique d’Auvergne Buda Musique 3739712
The banjo’s journey towards world musical domination continues; it has been heard in a variety of new roles recently, from accompa- nying the storytellers in the souks of Mar- rakesh, in a CD of the dance music of South India and now in this auvergnat trio.
Flor De Zinc comprise the banjo of Olivier Sulpice alongside Ludovic Rio’s accordeon and Michel Esbelin playing cabrette bagpipes and violin. Michel is probably the best known of the three musicians, having played and record- ed his central French traditional dance music in various duos and with a number of bands.
So Flor de Zinc bring a new instrument to the traditional music of the Auvergne but otherwise there is little innovative about their approach. They play traditional tunes at the pace that dancers would call for and it is likely that those familiar with the lovely dances of this region will find many familiar melodies here.
What makes this album stand out is the sheer quality of every aspect of the playing. The trio play with a great tightness and a verve that is exhilarating and exciting. This is pretty much unadulterated traditional dance music of the highest quality.
www.budamusique.com Vic Smith SIGRID MOLDESTAD
Himlen Har Sove Bort Mørkret Heilo HCD 7267
GJERMUND LARSEN TRIO Reise Heilo HCD 7274
Two Norwegian class acts, one a fiddler who’s blossomed into a singer and song- writer, the other a fiddler/violinist making new compositions that cross the traditional- classical divide.
Since the duo Spindel with fellow-fiddler Liv Merete Kroken, Sigrid Moldestad has struck out, writing attractive songs, playing fiddle and hardanger fiddle, and gathering round her on record and live an elegantly integrated band of leading players on gui- tars, viola, banjo, harmonium, piano, bass and drums. She played a gig of great charm with this band at London’s Kings Place three years ago, and that’s well reflected in her third solo album, whose title translates as ‘Heaven Has Slept Away The Dark’.
All the songs, except for two traditional, a setting of a Danish poem and – following on from the three on her previous album – a translation of a Burns song, are her own, and though they’re of course in Norwegian they’re so shapely, and the arrangements so well crafted, that it’s an album able to cross language barriers. Anyway, this is a world music magazine, right?
www.sigridmoldestad.com
Gjermund Larsen was a member of Nor- wegian fiddle band Majorstuen and Finland’s Frigg. Over the past few years his own pro- jects have occupied so much of his time and focus he’s left both those, and he has his own trio, joined by Andreas Utnem on piano and harmonium and double-bassist Sondre Meis- fjord. Reise is their third album.
Audible in his composition and playing are the melodies and styles of Norwegian fid- dle and hardanger fiddle music and the dark, reflective lyrical shapes of its folksong and folk hymns, harmonic and contrapuntal struc- tures from classical music, and the soaring jubilance, melodic and rhythmic twists of Kaustinen fiddling (the latter echoed even more when Andreas Utnem switches from piano to that pillar of Finnish pelimanni music, the harmonium). But Gjermund Larsen is in no way generic; he’s a quiet, elegant, rich- toned original, one of Norway’s most impor- tant and influential violinists, highly regard- ed in both folk and classical spheres and forming an important bridge between them.
www.grappa.no Andrew Cronshaw
BERNIE CHERRY
With Powder Shot and Gun Musical Tradition MTCD359
This label has offered many treats for the lovers of authentic traditional song and music over the years, so what about this release? We can read in his introduction that this singer presents something of a dilemma for Rod Stradling. He writes: “…it was his singing that I always remembered, not like any of the other revivalists I’d heard… he didn’t sound like someone trying to sound like a tradi tional singer either… he had his own style, and very much his own repertoire of unusual songs.”
You only have to listen to a few bars of the opening track, Cupid’s Garden, to realise why Bernie Cherry’s singing appeals so strongly to Rod. It has all the characteristics that exemplify the best way to tackle English traditional song: a plain straightforward approach, allowing the beauty of the songs to shine through. It is utterly devoid of man- nerism, ego or any pastiche or copy of those who may have inspired him. If pressed, it would have to be stated that his approach to his songs, timing, phrasing etc, has a lot in common with Walter Pardon – and that would be to give Bernie a very high compli- ment indeed. In his treatment of songs like Death And The Lady, Henry The Poacher, Peggy Benn and The Drowned Lover, we are hearing traditional singing at its finest.
One of the most interesting tracks is his treatment of The Carter Family’s The Storms Are On the Ocean, sung to a simple melodeon accompaniment from Roger Grimes. Bernie sings the song as if it was from the south of England rather from the south- ern Appalachians. Whether this is conscious or not, it follows what many traditional singers do when approaching material from outside their own ambit.
Apart from, perhaps, including a couple of tunes with Bernie’s fiddle played against Roger’s melodeon, it is difficult to imagine how this album could be improved.
www.mtrecords.co.uk Vic Smith
Photo: Dave Peabody
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